A design system for a measurement/control system may include software tools that enable a designer to select and arrange a set of system components. For example, software tools may enable a system designer to select and arrange a set of measurement instruments and controllers and a communication mechanism for communication among the instruments and controllers. A design system may include software tools that generate code for the behaviors of the instruments and the controllers.
A measurement/control system may be subject to a set of time constraints. For example, a measurement/control system may be subject to a set of time constraints that pertain to a device under test, e.g. a measurement sample rate. In another example, a measurement/control system may be subject to a set of time constraints that pertain to a system being controlled, e.g. rate of control value updates.
Unfortunately, prior design systems having a data flow/state machine system model may not provide sufficient tools for adapting a measurement/control system to a set of time constraints. For example, a prior design system may not enable a designer to adapt a design to the time constraints of behaviors in components that directly interact with a device under test. As a consequence, the timing of behaviors in components may be at the mercy of network communication loads and the activities of the operating systems in the components. Such uncertainties may complicate the process of designing a measurement/control system and increase the costs of system design.